Skyrim is 5th series of the epic saga known as The Elder Scrolls. Famous for the first person shooter and open-world view, Skyrim continues the Role Playing genre retaining all the favorite aspects of Morrowind and Oblivion while introducing a bunch of new features.



New classes, new guilds, new civilizations, new state-of-the-art graphics and...
wait for it...
Dragons!

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 17 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.8
Wine: 1.7.49-staging

Wine Installation

Note: Wine versions older than 2.0.2 and 2.12-staging no longer work with Steam.

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.49-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 1.7.49-staging is installed and you can close this window

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "Install a non-listed program"


Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next


Name your virtual drive: skyrim
Click Next


Check all three options:

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next


Select Wine 1.7.49-staging
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply


Graphics Tab
Click "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
Desktop size: 1024x768
Click OK


PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL's)

Check the following:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx10
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2008
• POL_Install_xact

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Click Browse

Navigate to your desktop
Select "SteamSetup.exe"
Click Open


Click Next


Click Next


Check "I accept the license..."
Click Next


Select Language
Click Next


Click Install


Click Finish


Updating...


dwrite isn't enabled yet, so there won't be any fonts
Click The "X" and close Steam


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "Steam.exe"


Name your shortcut: Skyrim
Click Next


Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next


PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Select Skyrim
Click Configure


General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.49-staging
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox
This fixes the missing font and store problem


Note: -no-dwrite will allow the fonts in Steam

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses


Launching Skyrim

Select Skyrim
Click Run


Note: Click Debug to see errors and bugs

Login to Steam




Select Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Click Install


Click Next


Skyrim is about 6 Gigs
When its finish downloading...
Click Finish


Click Play


Detecting Video Hardware
Click OK


Optimization

Click Options


Graphics Adapter and Resolution
Adjust:

• Graphics Adapter
• Aspect Ratio
• Resolution
• Antialiasing
• Anisotropic Filtering
• Detail
• Windowed

Click Ok


Advanced Detail
Adjust:

• Texture Quality
• Radial Blur Quality
• Shadow Detail
• Decal Quantity
• FXAA
• Water Reflections

Click Close


Advanced View Distance
Adjust:

• Object Fade
• Actor Fade
• Grass Fade
• Specularity Fade
• Light Fade
• Item Fade
• Distand Object Detail
• Object Detail Fade

Click Close


Click Play


Rule of Thumb
High settings = More detail, lower frame rates
Low settings = Less detail, higher frame rates

Conclusion:
Skyrim ran beautifully on my GeForce 550 Ti with everything set on High or Ultra. Wine 1.7.49-staging does a great job and I didn't have too many issue:
Tree animation was not smooth and the shadows moved irregularly
Can not see underwater (underwater view can be disabled in the .ini files)

Screenshots: